Catching Lily
by MoJo-sbluver
Summary: This story explains how James was able to get Lily to go out with him in their seventh year.
1. Default Chapter

Chapter 1 ABOARD THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS  
  
There were butterflies in James' stomach as he passed a room on the train where Lily and her friends sat; laughing at a something one of the girls, Sara, had said. It was their last year at Hogwarts, and James' last chance at getting Lily to go out with him.  
  
When James looked up ahead after passing Lily's compartment, he saw Sirius, with his crooked smile, watching him look at Lily. When he realized what Sirius was smirking about, James blushed heavily. The two friends went into the room on the train where Remus was already sitting.  
  
"Ah, our second to last time here On the Hogwarts Express..." sighed Sirius.  
  
"Yeah..." said James.  
  
"...and James is still making little hearts appear in his eyes whenever Lily is around."  
  
James looked at him. He was too used to hearing jokes like this from his friends and didn't even feel annoyed by it. Remus chuckled and continued reading his book.  
  
Peter came into the room and sat down.  
  
The three of his friends muttered, "Hey Wormtail."  
  
The train started moving and after a few minutes, Sirius noticed that James was looking straight ahead and was for once, not talking!  
  
Because this was so extraordinarily rare, Sirius asked him, "What're you thinking, mate?" (hehe I luv how they say "mate")  
  
"Well..." said James.  
  
"It's Lily, isn't it?" piped in Lupin.  
  
"This is the last chance I get to get her to like me," began James. He sighed and said, "She hates me, doesn't she."  
  
Do you really want us to answer that?" asked Peter. Sirius glared at him.  
  
"I need some way to get her attention. I'm just not getting her interested in me."  
  
"HA!" laughed Wormtail. "Sorry mate, but that's not your problem. You are getting her attention. It's just the wrong kind of attention you are getting."  
  
James looked confused. Then, he had the look of one with an idea. "Hey! Sirius, you seem to get a lot of girls don't you?"  
  
"Well..." said Sirius, slicking back his hair with his fingers.  
  
"And Lupin, you don't get called a git or a twirp or any of the other things Lily calls me by anyone, do you"  
  
"Er, I guess not..." answered Remus.  
  
"And Wormtail, You...um..." began James. Peter was waiting for the rest of the sentence, but it couldn't be finished.  
  
"What's your point?" asked Sirius.  
  
"Well, maybe you guys can help me get Lily to like me." Said James.  
  
"I don't know about that..." said Lupin. "I mean, you get lots of girls, just not Lily. It's not a problem you have about getting girls to like you, it's just the fact that, I dunno, maybe you and Lily aren't supposed to be together-"  
  
"Of coarse we are!!" said James in almost a yell.  
  
"Er...I guess we could try to give you some advice." Said Sirius.  
  
"Great. You guys seem to know a lot more about what I'm doing wrong than I do." Said James.  
  
"Okay, I don't know if I can be much help, but I guess I can try to help." Said Moony.  
  
They all looked at Peter, who said, "Whatever, I guess I can help out too."  
  
"Right, thanks guys." Said James.  
  
END CHAPTER ONE  
  
Please preview me so I can submit the next chapter, whether you have an account in Fanfiction or not!!!!  
  
Thanx to those of you who previewed or read my other fic, it's not great, but hey...it was my first one. ^^ 


	2. at the feast

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
CHAPTER 2 The Feast  
  
When the students arrived at Hogwarts, they stepped off the train and went by carriage into the school. The Great Hall was filled with color; red and gold confetti being poured out of thin air over the Gryffindor table, and the other tables had confetti too, in their house colors.  
  
Sirius saw his cousin, Bellatrix, who sneered at him. She was talking with Lucius Malfoy, who also despised Padfoot. Sirius' family had now probably disowned him after he had run away in the summer before his sixth year. The memory of his family stung, and he turned away from Bella, purposely turning his mind onto the subject of what he aught to do to celebrate the beginning of term this year. Perhaps turn Snape's shoes into hopping frog. He'd wanted to do that for ages and now he knew how...  
  
James stole a glance at Lily, as she sat with her friends at their table. He looked at his friends and they sat at the opposite end of the long wooden table, as to not be heard by the chattering girls.  
  
Dumbledore finished his speech, and the delicious food appeared on the tables.  
  
"What do I do?" asked James. "Should I talk to her?"  
  
"Yeah, give it a try, we'll have an idea of what you might need to work on a bit," answered Sirius.  
  
James marched over to the other end of the table trying very hard not to look obvious. This attempt failed terribly. He plopped down right in between Lily and her friend as they were talking and turned to look at Lily.  
  
"Hey, what's up, Lil?"  
  
"You know I don't like when people call me that." She answered him.  
  
"Oh...right...er, sorry. Hey I was wondering, and I know this is kinda early to be asking you, but-"  
  
"No," said Lily, looking bored.  
  
"Aww come on, I missed you over the holidays. Couldn't we spend a little time together? You know, catch up?"  
  
Lily was not looking at him. Instead, she just ate, looking down.  
  
"Um...let me think about it...no." she finally said after chewing a mouthful of potatoes.  
  
James looked up at his friend, Sirius, who put his arm up, about to motion to him that he should come back.  
  
James took this entirely the wrong way and put his arm around Lily, who promptly took a pie that was in front of her and smashed it into his face.  
  
"Aww! What was that for, hun?"  
  
"DON'T YOU CALL ME HUN!"  
  
James ran over to the other side of the table, hearing people laugh at him as he went. He grabbed his wand and swiftly, the mess on his face was gone.  
  
"Dude, what kind of help was that!?" he asked Sirius, who was choking on his food due to laughter.  
  
"I was trying to get you to come back over!" he finally said after composing himself.  
  
Lupin was red in the face and trying not to laugh. "You called her hun?"  
  
"Well..." but he couldn't think of an excuse. **well, I guess that was really stupid of me...** he thought to himself. (If you see the little star asterisk thingies, that means that this is what they are thinking, not saying.)  
  
The boys tiredly dragged their feet up the marble staircase to the fat lady's portrait.  
  
"Password?"  
  
"Flibberty Jibbits," said Lupin immediately and they made their way through the portrait hole.  
  
When the four of them finished packing and were in their dormitory, Lupin said suddenly said, "Damn! Full moon in about two weeks."  
  
"Sweet!" said James, as Sirius said "Alright!" enthusiastically and Peter squeaked, "Eek!" with excitement.  
  
"No, not any of those things. I hate changing." Lupin sighed.  
  
"Well, you've always got us!" chipped in Sirius.  
  
"Yeah, you guys make it bearable, thanks."  
  
"No prob, mate! It's fun!" said Prongs.  
  
And they certainly did have fun... ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Well, that's my second chapter!! Thanx to those of you who reviewed me!! Now I'm gonna need lots of reviews to write this next chappy!! R&R!!! 


	3. The Full Moon Party

I LOVE SIRIUS!!! Note the penname...MoJo-sbluver. Sb stands for Sirius Black...We have the same initials!!! AHHHH!!! *tear* I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters, they are the property of JKR. **sniffle** Sirius: who you callin' property!? MoJo: SIRIUS!!!! *Gives Sirius huge bear-hug* James and Remus come to pull MoJo off of Padfoot, while Peter sits in the corner of the room picking his nose. **EEEWWW!!!!** MoJo attempts to hug Remus, another fave character of hers, but James and Sirius (after James used his wand to heal Sirius' nearly crushed spine) hold her back. James: Er...on with the story!!!!!  
  
CHAPTER 3, THE FULL MOON PARTY Two weeks had passed and in that time, the usual happened. Sirius and James were able to turn Snape's shoes into hopping frogs, (and they even made them so that they squeaked when they hit the floor.) and grades were superb, as usual, for the three marauders. (But not the wannabe marauder, Peter, because he was mean and made Sirius go to Azkaban.) "Sorry I'm late, Professor Dumbledore," panted Moony, who had just run through the school to get to the Headmaster's office.  
  
"Quite alright," he answered with a grin. "Let us go."  
  
The two of them set off toward the Whomping Willow, along with the school nurse, Madame Pomfrey. Pomfrey was new around the school and this was her first time escorting a werewolf to his place of protection. She looked almost as pale as Remus.  
  
"Now, Madame Pomfrey, all you have to do is check up on him while he is sleeping; you will put a protecting charm on you before you enter the hidden passage."  
  
Pomfrey nodded a tiny nod, still staring at Lupin.  
  
"To get the tree to stop thrashing, all you have to do is-"Dumbledore gave his wand a small jerk and the tree quit its dangerous thrashing. "-use a special stunning charm, meant just for this particular tree. I will teach you it tonight after we get Mr. Lupin safely to the House on the other end of the tunnel." (Yeah...I no that you hafta prod the knot on the tree...but that is an emergency way to do it...Dumbledore is the only one who knows the spell he made for it, until he teaches it to Pomfrey.) Because you only have a limited time to get through the hole, the tree had begun whipping it's huge branches around, swinging close to their heads.  
  
Dumbledore did the charm again, and Remus went through the hole.  
  
James, Sirius, and Peter watched Dumbledore walk towards the massive castle along with the school nurse as they were crouching under the James' invisibility cloak around the edge of the Forbidden Forest. They transformed immediately, and Peter scurried over and prodded the knot of the tree, making it freeze.  
  
The mouse, stag, and dog scuttled, galloped, and bounded down the long tunnel to the house they knew their good pal Moony would be in.  
  
It was dark, but the clouds weren't completely away from the moon quite yet, so Remus hadn't transformed. He was looking terribly sickly, though, as the animagi entered the small "haunted" house. They changed back to themselves, and after only about three minutes of thinking of what they should do, Lupin began to shake uncontrollably.  
  
Swiftly his friends changed themselves just in time, as Remus began to grow hair all over his arms and legs, and his face looked upward toward the heavens in a sort of screwed up pained expression. His face became that of a werewolf's in a flash, and he and his friends played and wrestled with each other in the dark, dusty broken down shack.  
  
Because they communicated to each other through their heads, they could sort of—think—conversations with each other.  
  
"I Got You Babe..." thought Wormtail. "WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL US, PETER!??" shouted James through his head at the rat.  
  
"Sorry...it's stuck in my head!"  
  
"pf!" James and Sirius thought together.  
  
"Shall we go to the Three Broomsticks and steal some butterbeer?" inquired Sirius.  
  
"Sounds good to me!" answered James.  
  
But as the four of them drank their butterbeer, Peter exclaimed, "What was that??" They all looked around, except for Lupin, who was just finishing off his butterbeer glass he had eaten.  
  
"Oh, quit your whining, Wormtail." Said James as he bent down, accidently got his antlers stuck in his glass, and poured the remainder of the butterbeer over his head.  
  
"EEK! HOT!! OUCH!!"  
  
Sirius slirped up the rest of his and the four boys began thinking of what to do next.  
  
"I guess we could hang out in the forest..." said James, turning away from Lupin.  
  
"YEAH! Great idea, Prongs," answered Sirius. He looked over James' shoulder and gasped. "Where's Moony?"  
  
Prongs whirled around and noticed that Remus was gone. He heard a huge belch and looked over at Wormtail, who had clearly just finished his butterbeer and was extremely drunk.  
  
"E'RYBODY IN DA CLUB GE'IN TISPY..." he sang joyously.  
  
"Wormtail, where is Remus?" Padfoot asked him urgently. The rat hiccupped and pointed upward to the sky. As the three of them looked up, they saw Remus on top of the building of Zonko's, staring up at the moon. They ran for him, and he began howling loudly, waking up everyone in the town.  
  
Lights flicked on, igniting the cobblestones on the street with dancing light from the people moving within the homes. Just as someone was opening their door with a silver hook for defense, James and Sirius tackled Remus and they flew from the top of the building with a thump on the ground.  
  
They herded the werewolf back up to the shack, Peter bouncing on Sirius' back.  
  
The door to the house flew open and the boys stumbled inside. Sirius and Remus clawed at each other for a while, and soon Lupin calmed down a bit.  
  
"Well, that went **hic** well..." hiccupped Peter.  
  
A bit later that night, at around 2:00, the boys went into the forest and began frolicking.  
  
As James was cantering alongside Sirius, who had Peter riding on his back, he stopped abruptly. He could smell the sweet perfume of Lily.  
  
"Wait!" he thought to the others. Lupin, of course, didn't listen, and instead danced around the trees going deeper into the forest. He leapt along and found the place where Lily was talking to her friend, Sara.  
  
"Oh, I just don't know what to do, Sara." She said. "He is so...so..."  
  
"WHO!! WHO IS SO SO??" James would have yelled out loud, if he could have.  
  
"Well, everyone knows that James has liked since he first set eyes on you, Lily. Im sorry to admit that, but it's the truth, and you're gonna hafta face that," her friend answered her.  
  
James noticed Sirius gazing at Sara. He had likes her for as long as James liked Lily.  
  
"Maybe I like James, and I just cant admit it to myself." Lily said. "Oh, I hope that's not the case."  
  
The whispered conversation was happening near the front steps to the castle, so all the rest that James caught was Sara saying, "I like Sirius, but he can be a bit of a jerk sometimes...he's a great guy, I know it. He just doesn't like to show it because it's not "cool" to be a goody-goody. I think James is the same way."  
  
"We should get back up to the dormitories, before we get caught out here..." said Lily. "I really wish this weren't the only place we could talk in privacy as well as comfort...since the common room is full of those stupid sprinklers James and Sirius put up all over the room that spray anyone within a 5-foot radius of them.  
  
Padfoot stared at Sara in awe at what he had heard, and Prongs stared at Lily. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ THAT WAS A BIT LONGER THAN MY OTHER CHAPTERS SO IM SORRY IF ANYONES BRAIN IS BURSTING, BECAUSE IF IT IS THEN THAT IS SAD SINCE ALTHOUGH IT'S LONGER THAN THE REST IT'S NOT THAT LONG REALLY... THANX FOR READING THIS CHAPTER...THE NEXT STEP IS TO REVIEW!!! Sirius: and please be as mean as possible, MoJo loves being told that she sucks at writing, as long as the criticism is constructive. James: or not constructive...doesn't really matter to me... MoJo: Wow Peter, are you still picking your nose?? WAIT!!! I just figured out why you are such an idiot!!!! I am so smart...S-M-R-T, I mean S-M-A-R-T... Remus: why is he an idiot? I have been pondering this for ages but nothing in any book I have read gives any clue... MoJo: because instead of brains, he has boogers filling his head!!! **pause** Sirius: ruddy brilliant...**awed expression on his face** MoJo: **blushes** Thanks honey... Sirius: don't call me honey! Grrrr...* *stalks off in an irritated way** ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 


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